Research & Development

Electric Applications Incorporated conducts research and developmental work across a broad range of technologies. From advanced fuel vehicle development to mechanistic studies of various battery chemistries, pre-competitive work is conducted for industry organizations as well as the US Department of Energy. Competitive research and development work is conducted with complete confidentiality for various battery companies and equipment manufacturers. With over two decades of project management experience and over 50 years of experience in Electric Applications Incorporated personnel in research and development of energy storage devices and their application, Electric Applications Incorporated personnel excel in defining project objectives, conducting a high quality technical program and achieving results on budget and schedule.

Lead Battery Science Research Project

The objective of the Lead Battery Science Research Program (LBSRP) is to align industry members representing over 90% of the North American lead battery manufacturers and suppliers with the National Laboratory system of the US Department of Energy to conduct scientific research into the fundamental operation of lead batteries, using the extensive human and equipment resources of the Argonne National Laboratory (ANL).

DOE Project – Behind The Meter Storage (BTMS) Lead Battery Initial Characterization

EAI, in collaboration with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) BTMS team, developed a test cycle simulating the device-level power profile from the battery of a peak-shaving system supporting an extreme fast charger. The test cycle was developed, shakedown tested on surrogate cells, and utilized to evaluate the cycle-life performance of various lead battery technologies at Electric Applications Incorporated. The resulting data have been used by the BTMS project team as an input to an overarching analysis project focused on optimization of behind the meter energy storage for various applications.

CBI Project - Opportunity Fast Charging and Improved Energy Throughput for Motive Power Applications

This project is a joint effort between Electric Applications Incorporated and C&D/Trojan Battery Company. The project demonstrates the improved fast charging capability and improved total energy through-put of newly developed batteries from C&D/Trojan Battery Company.

Fire Load Analysis, Lead Grid Energy Storage Battery

A Fire Load and Fire Load Density calculation was developed for a typical 12V – 100 Ah lead storage battery.

Grid Energy Storage Performance Improvement Using Controlled Overcharge

The objective of this project was to use a controlled overcharge protocol to enable lead-acid batteries to meet the life cycle and Total Cost of Operation requirements of the emerging Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) market, improving the competitiveness of AGM batteries in the BESS market, relative to that of other technologies (e.g. lithium ion).

Performance Evaluation of 12V Start-Stop Lead Acid Batteries Following USABC Test Manual

This Project was a collaboration between the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the Advanced Lead Acid Battery Consortium (ALABC) Project. This Project assessed the performance of lead-acid batteries in start-stop applications. Work was conducted with objectives of (1) developing a performance baseline for lead-acid and lead-carbon batteries in start-stop applications, and (2) analyzing “gaps” between this baseline performance and the end-of-life characteristics targeted by the USDoE through the US Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC).